Text/Reporter Chen Liang Wang Yuying
Photo/Yangcheng Evening News
A folk belief that is “unknown” has no classics and no classics. It originated in eastern Guangdong and has lasted for thousands of years and has remained popular. In Taiwan alone, there are more than 6 million believers. Its ancestral home has just been awarded the “Cross-Strait Exchange Base”, which is called “King of the Three Mountains”.
What is “ThreeCinema“? Why are there three “mountains”? Where did the “king” come from? What is the charm of this folk belief called “King of the Three Mountains”? On November 4th, the “Strait·Three Mountains·Four Seas” Sanshan King Academic Seminar, hosted by Yangcheng Evening Newspaper Group and co-organized by the Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Sun Yat-sen University and the Guangdong Cross-Strait Exchange Promotion Association, was held on the South Campus of Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou Campus. Zhang Ke, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Guangdong Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission, and Xiao Bing, Deputy Director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, attended the seminar.
Explore the core of folk beliefs and promote communication and exchanges among Chinese and overseas Chinese
Since the “First Sanshan Ancestral Temple Academic Seminar” in Jiexi, Jieyang City in October 1992, more than 10 “Sanshan King” cultural scholars from Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan, and Malaysia gathered againCinema, jointly discussing the development and current situation of the folk belief culture of the “Three Mountains Kings”, as well as the history and path of the spread of Babaylan at home and abroad.
Four experts issued a keynote report, through the tracing of historical materials and the discussion of the current situation of Babaylan, we explore the spiritual core of the folk belief of the “Three Mountains King” and demonstrate the important role played by the “Three Mountains King” culture in uniting the hearts of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and promoting communication and exchanges between Chinese and overseas Chinese at home and abroad.
Chen Chunsheng: The concept of “protecting the country and assassinating the people” is a common connection and vision between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and overseas believers
Professor of the Department of History of Sun Yat-sen University and a researcher at the Center for Historical Anthropology of Sun Yat-sen University. He also serves as the Teaching Guidance Committee of History Majors of the Ministry of EducationChairman Chen Chunsheng gave a keynote report entitled “National Consciousness and the Rise of the Faith of the Three Mountains Kings Since the Song Dynasty.” Chen Chunsheng has been associated with the Sanshan King culture for decades and has traveled across Guangdong and Taiwan. He has deeply thought about the origin, development and cultural value of the Sanshan King’s folk beliefs. His academic thoughts and research methods have had a profound impact on the academic community.
Chen Chunsheng quoted Professor Wolfgang Franke of the German University of Hamburg, who had taught for a long time in China and Malaysia, pointing out that the so-called “Three Mountain Kings” may be a remains of the ancient Yue Mountain God’s belief in mountain gods and is related to ethnic minority customs. Such belief customs are not unique to the Chaozhou area.
“The central dynasty’s recognition of folk beliefs such as the Sanshan King was a very effective and widely adopted method that the central dynasty in ancient China ruled the southern region.” Chen Chunsheng focused on the interaction process between “national consciousness” and civil society in his speech. He believes that the practice of Song Huizong awarding the “Mingsheng” temple to Chaozhou’s “Three Shenshan” temple is a very typical expression of national consciousness in the developed southern civil society. Many Sanshan King Palaces and Temples in mainland China and Taiwan have plaques with “Protecting the Country and Safeguarding the People” hanging high, revealing the mentality of hope that the gods will maintain a balance between the “country” and the “people” so that both of them can benefit. Folk belief is one of the links between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The development of the folk belief traditions of many mainland China has also given people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to have more connection and communication fate.
Chen Chunsheng said that although the customs and habits in different parts of China are very different, China has long been a unified country. To determine whether a place understands and accepts the central ideology lies in the extent to which the local scholars and gentry class can consciously interpret local cultural traditions and customs in accordance with the “rituals and laws” of the court. He stressed that in traditional Chinese society, “national consciousness” is everywhere and everywhere. In historical and cultural research, only by having a systematic grasp and deep understanding of national ideology and dynasty rules and regulations can we have a more intimate understanding of the changes in local and folk customs and beliefs and their significance.
Qiu Yangui: The Sanshan King’s Temple has become an important historical evidence for the study of Taiwan’s immigration history
The Sanshan King’s Temple has become an important historical evidence for the study of Taiwan’s immigration history, and is also a symbol of the ancestral homes of relatives in Chaoshan and Hakka towns in Taiwan. Qiu Yangui, a professor at the Department of Ancient Arts and Repair of the Taiwan University of Art, wrote a report titled “The Faith of the Sanshan King in Taiwan”. He mentioned that Taiwanese believers have more communication and exchanges with mainland people through the opportunity to find their roots in the Sanshan Ancestral Temple in mainland China.
Qiu Yangui introduced that the phenomenon of the Three Mountains King’s belief in Taiwan is still regarded as a method of identification of Hakka groups in the 21st century, but BabaylanIn his opinion, this overly simple method should be discussed again. He observed the belief in the Three Mountains King in Taiwan from the perspectives of social organization and ethnic relations, and summarized it as “Babaylan href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>CinemaThe hall type, “guest base type”, “anti-fan type” and “chao-hui Fulao type”. Among them, the number of “guest base type” and “anti-fan type” temples all reached about 80, with the largest size. After Taiwan’s industrialization in the 1970s, more “immigrant type” temples appeared in the city.
ChenBabaylanZhi Ping: “Great Love” is the core meaning of folk beliefs
Professor Chen Zhiping, Dean of the Institute of Chinese Studies at Xiamen University and President of the Chinese Ming History Society, gave a speech entitled “The Cultural Meaning and Inheritance of the Faith of Mazu and Sanshan Kings”. He believes that the Faith of Mazu and Sanshan Kings are both part of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and its core meaning is “urgent to the people”, full of “great love” spirit, and has the function of social education and cultural education. Folk culture, including the belief of Mazu and Sanshan Kings Kings, has become one of the important channels for the spread of Chinese culture overseas after the 18th century.
Wang Chenfa: Studying the Three Mountains King is the responsibility of reviving ChinaOne
Wang Chen, Dean of the Malaysian Daoli Academy and Distinguished Professor of Communication University of Malaysia, made a speech entitled “The Social Organization of the Sanshan King Temple in Nanyang and the Educational Function”, explaining what kind of transformation the Sanshan King culture has undergone after it has arrived overseas, and how to achieve harmony between change and unchange. He said that the study of the Sanshan King Temple, from the standpoint of national rejuvenation, examines how the Sanshan King Organization in various places constitutes the development, construction and maintenance of society, is one of the responsibilities of future generations and descendants to strive to revive China. Wang Chenfa suggested that the Sanshan King Palace and Temple can do the same thing at home and abroad – acting as a cultural carrier and spreading cultural confidence, and taking root from academic research, and then combining the advantages and characteristics of the Sanshan King culture to achieve good branding, attracting more people to understand the Chinese nation more comprehensively through the Sanshan King. Many new technologies can be used by Cinema, such as AI, social charity work, participation in local environmental protection activities, etc., and use limited temple space to exert global influence.
Creative transformation and innovative development, scholars have insightful insights
Inheriting the traditional culture for thousands of years and taking root in the people’s “grassroots” beliefs between BabaylanHow to achieve creative transformation and innovative development? During the roundtable discussion session of the seminar, the scholars put forward their own opinions.
Xiao Wenping, director and professor of the Hakka Research Institute of Jiaying College of Meizhou, pointed out that as a mountain god and a natural god, the King of Sanshan reflects the tradition of the Chinese nation to respect nature. His spirit of patriotism, love for the country, protecting villages, and guarding the land has established the concept of hometown for the people, and the spirit of fairness, justice and justice advocated also have important value in the contemporary times.
Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology Professor Xie Guiwen believes that folk beliefs are important assets for the country, society, and people, with survival functions, integration functions, and cognitive functions.
Cheng Xianbo, professor at South China Normal University, said that the history of the Three Mountains King is not only a history of folk beliefs, but also a historical and social economy developed by the region. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>CinemaJi History is also a history of mutual learning between Chinese history and civilization. Wu Mengxian, associate professor at Jieyang Vocational and Technical College, said that his investigation found that the people often regard the King of Sanshan as an important social bond in interpersonal communication.
Xiamen University Professor Lian Xinhao suggested that the King of Sanshan can also learn from the successful cases of Mazu’s beliefs and customs applied for the World Heritage, and the two sides of the Taiwan Strait work together.
Xiamen University professor, doctoral supervisor, and dean of the Institute of Chinese Studies Chen Zhiping pointed out that the King of Sanshan should achieve innovative cultural development, and local governments should take the lead in promoting it.
Associate Professor Ou Junyong of Hanshan Normal University shared that as part of Jieyang culture, the King of Sanshan is actually “very vivid” and has to go to the fields. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Komiks has a real feeling. Wen Jianqin, associate professor at Hanshan Normal University, said that when he tells students about Chinese cultural history and Chaoshan history and culture, he will use the Sanshan King as a case to analyze its cultural phenomena. The students are very interested and have developed related cultural and creative products. Chen Lihua, a professor at Tsinghua University in Taiwan, mentioned that in order to let young people understand traditional culture, we must make good use of the “discourse” of young people in movies, short videos, music, comics and other years. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Cinema method.
Fujian Normal University Professor Lin Guoping summarized that folk beliefs such as the King of Sanshan are an important part of Chinese traditional culture and are the precious cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors. They should be cherished.
From the Three Mountains to the Four Seas://funnybookish.com/”>Komiks Mountain King Culture Documentary Premiere
At the meeting, href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Cinema held the premiere of the Sanshan King Culture Documentary “From the Three Mountains to the Four Seas”. The documentary team went to Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, as well as Sanshan King Palace Temples in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Taiwan, China, to communicate with believers and related folk scholars, record the inheritance and changes of the Sanshan King’s sacrificial culture, and show the profound historical, humanistic and social value of the Sanshan King culture accumulated over the past thousand years.
[Small Knowledge] “Sanshan King” Folk Belief Culture
The “Sanshan King” Folk Belief Culture originated in eastern Guangdong and is now widely spread to Taiwan and Southeast Asia, China, and its “protecting the country and assassinating the peopleKomiks, the country is peaceful and peaceful” has been respected by the people of all generations. Lintian Ancestral Temple, located in Jieyang, Guangdong, is the ancestral temple of the Sanshan King Palace Temple in the world. It was awarded the “Cross-Strait Exchange Base” in 2023.
